Emma Watson is no stranger to standing up for what she believes in and waving the flag for equality for EVERYONE. If sheâs not putting her heart and soul into the HeForShe campaign, sheâs taking to the UN as a Goodwill Ambassador.
Emâs on a mission to change perceptions and make feminism a gender inclusive movement, and we think thatâs pretty epic.
One person who doesnât seem to share our sentiments, though, is âThe Sunâsâ Rod Liddle.
This prolific âjournalistâ (we use that phrase lightly, and soon youâll understand why),  has come under fire lately, after he wrote a less than complimentary downright OFFENSIVE column about Emmaâs latest UN speech â in which she addressed important issues like gender inequality and sexual assault.
In said offending article, Liddle wrote the following:
If you want to bang your head against a brick wall multiple times, we feel you.
As you *may* have noticed, there are SO many things wrong with this whole thing, weâre not entirely sure where to start.
Firstly, Liddle, her name is EMMA WATSON, not Hermione Grainger. This might surprise you given that you seem to live in your own messed up bubble, but movie characters are not real.
And anyway, what does Emmaâs professional history have to do with her ability to speak about gender inequality and sexual assault? The last time we checked, Emma, an educated woman, was far more qualified on the topic of womenâs rights than a middle-aged bigoted man, so weâre not quite sure why he seems to think otherwise.
If Liddle were a proper journalist, heâd have the technical abilities do a quick internet search, where heâd find that âHarry Potterâ is only a very small part of Emmaâs resume (SHOCK HORROR). Â The last âHarry Potterâ film was also released in 2011, not to mention the fact that nobody ever turned anybody else into a frog in the books OR films. So not only is your knowledge out of date, Liddle, but itâs also false. Â Awkward.
And then thereâs Liddleâs labelling of feminism as âwhining, leftie, PC crapâ. Â When youâre a stuffy middle-aged misogynist, apparently, there are far more important issues for us to be focusing on than sexual assault.
Never mind the fact that âapproximately 85,000 women and 12,000 men are raped in England and Wales alone every yearâ.  Never mind the fact that â1 in 5 women aged 16 â 59 has experienced some form of sexual violence since the age of 16â. Never mind the fact that ânearly half a million adults are sexually assaulted in England and Wales each year.â  Thatâs all just âwhiney crapâ, apparently. Itâs not like weâre talking about hundreds of thousands of peopleâs lives being ruined every single year. These arenât real issues, are they? Letâs go back to talking about the rules of Quidditch â a real, important isssue.
Finally, can we not label intelligent, successful women as âluvvie slebsâ, please. Weâre not entirely sure where Liddleâs got his âfactsâ from, but these women heâs slating definitely know more than ânowtâ.
Emma has an English Literature degree, and Angelina Jolie is a professor at the London School of Economics. Not that education has any bearing on someoneâs intelligence, but itâs safe to say that both Emma and Angelina are more than qualified to be educating others about important issues.
Whatâs certain is that theyâre more deserving of peopleâs attention than someone who makes a living out of spreading hate-filled opinions, anyway.
To be fair, given Liddleâs âjournalisticâ history, weâre not entirely surprised. This is, after all,  coming from the guy who called Black Lives Matter UK âblockheads â, and claimed that gay sex is âunnatural and perverseâ.
In the 21st century, how can anyone have opinions like these? This guy is in a position where he can help the British public to learn about important issues, yet heâs abusing his power in a Trump-esque way to get his name in lights. If you ask us, thatâs really sad.
And while what he has said is an absolute DISGRACE, whatâs even more disgusting, is the fact that heâs not yet been fired for his comments. If you ask us, saying that gay sex is âunnaturalâ is about as close to homophobia as it gets. Add this to his sexist remarks, and you have to wonder why on earth this bigot is still in a job.
If any of us were to come out with an anti-feminist, anti-gay sex or anti-black lives matter slur in the middle of work, college or school, do you think that weâd be COMMENDED for it? No, no we would not. Weâd be fired, suspended or excluded, and rightly so, too.
As expected, the internet has NOT reacted well to Liddleâs idiotic comments, and the world completely has Emmaâs back:
Not that The Sun haven't done utterly deplorable things in the past, but the Emma Watson comments are despicable. Sinking lower by the day
â RebeccaWatkinns (@RebeccaKnight01) September 23, 2016
So disgusted by the Sun's article on Emma Watson
â Sammy Allen (@_AllenSammy) September 23, 2016
I suppose they got Rod Liddle in because Donald Trump is a bit tied up with other stuff at the moment. #HeForShe #EmmaWatson #dontbuythesun pic.twitter.com/VLf7j53Cz5
â Jeanna Skinner (@JeannaLStars) September 25, 2016
https://twitter.com/ksenwright/status/780461034167537664
@RodLiddle your 'column' (& I use the term v.loosely) in the Sun paper about Emma Watson was absolutely disgusting.
â Sarah Grimes (@GrimesySarah) September 25, 2016
Rod Liddle's The Sun"column" on @EmWatson's speech? Best toilet paper I've ever used.#EmmaWatson #TheSun #RodLiddle #Disgusting
â uma pessoa (@vortexazul) September 26, 2016
But itâs not just the people of Twitter who have been having their say. The 1975âs Matty Healy has also condemnedThe Sun, saying:
Female graduate of BROWN UNIVERSITY gives wonderful speech on sexual assault. @TheSun responds accordingly by printing this. Fuck me. pic.twitter.com/bouiFGENVI
â matty (@Truman_Black) September 23, 2016
YES MATTY. *claps*
While Liddleâs article is up there with some of the most distasteful things weâve ever read, itâs great to see people backing Emmaâs cause with such force. Hopefully, this will help to give Emmaâs speech the publicity it deserves, and raise the importance of issues like sexual assault and gender inequality.
If youâre reading this, people of âThe Sunâ, please think more carefully before approving copy like this in the future. We get that itâs great for publicity (but then again, hate always is), but surely ensuring that youâre spreading a positive message of gender-inclusivity is more important than getting your name splashed across the web.
Liddle, along with the rest of the bigots who have built a career at the expense of others (Katie Hopkins springs to mind), is probably getting a real kick out of all the publicity heâs getting right now. And we reckon that was probably the sole aim of the article.
But, unfortunately for âJournalistsâ like Liddle, this kind of attitude has a sell-by-date, and their time is running out. Thereâs only so many individuals who will be won over by hatred, and, fortunately, those groups of people are depleting.
We are from generations which donât tolerate hatred. We donât tolerate sexism, homophobia or racism. We want an all-inclusive society, where there is no room for misogynists and bigots like Liddle.
Activists like Emma Watson are integral to achieving this, so letâs all get behind her, and stick two fingers up to those who think itâs okay to teach otherwise.
What do you think of Liddleâs comments? Do you think he should be fired? Let us know by commenting below!
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